Osage University Partners has contributed to a series A round for Vor Biopharma, an oncology drug developer based on work by Siddhartha Mukherjee at Columbia University.
Vor Biopharma, a US-based cancer treatment developer based on research at Columbia University, closed a $42m series A round on Thursday that included spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners.
Venture capital firm 5AM Ventures and investment firm RA Capital Management co-led the round, which also featured pharmaceutical companies PureTech Health and Novartis, as well as medical product group Johnson & Johnson.
Johnson & Johnson and Novartis invested through subsidiaries Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research respectively.
Vor Biopharama, which was co-founded by PureTech, is developing therapies to treat forms of cancer that begin in the cells of blood-forming tissue, such as the bone marrow. It uses haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) to generate, healthy functional cells that are protected from other cancer-targeted therapies.
The technology is based on research by co-founder Siddhartha Mukherjee, an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University. The series A funds will go to financing an HSC-based candidate intended to treat acute myeloid leukemia.
5AM Ventures managing partner Kush Parmar has joined the Vor Biopharma board of directors in conjunction with the round, and Bharatt Chowrira, PureTech’s president and chief of business and strategy, is also a board member.
Mukherjee said: “The need for new therapies for hematologic malignancies is dire. I am gratified that this discovery from my lab continues to advance towards the clinic. This new platform may enable more patients to benefit from the life-saving potential of targeted immunotherapies.
“I look forward to further engaging with the scientific community when we publish our results in peer-reviewed journals.”
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
